Robert Spence (1) (1933–)

Very brief and introductory but useful for somebody who wants a reference that doesn’t go too in depth.

Imagine you are in the railway station, The Book is laid out as the map to get to your final destination.
Quite an amusing use of visualization.

The Book is only Seven Chapters. I had to read this for Class. It's not the most impressive book.

I think, Engineering, Technical books would have been better use of my time. But anyway, there are basic concepts of Visualization in this book.

Note: Visualization is a human activity and not limited to Computer Science. This is a book that gives the show more theoretical side of Visualization, that includes Design.

How do you design a Chair?
Think of Limitations

How do you design a light-bulb?

Well, the book doesn't teach you, the know-how but gives a frame of reference to build upon the know-how.

I think of visualizations back in 90's in Windows and think of it now. How much has changed? If you're a curious person, wouldn't you want to know the underlying principles of it. I think of forming some materials before you can construct your own way.


Outline:

1) Introduction
2) Issues
3) Representation
4) Presentation
5) Interaction
6) Design
7) Case Studies

The meat of the book lays on Chapter 3, 4, 5.

Enjoy reading, I would recommend this to Computer Science, UX/UI, Design, HCI, Info Science Majors. show less

Spence provides an accessible introduction to the field of information visualization. It should work well as a first book on the topic, as it presents the concepts and the most influential ideas in a well-structured and pedagogical fashion.

This was an interesting book. It doesn't really give you much help on actually deciding how to visualize a set of data, but it does discuss how information is displayed. It seems to be more of an IT book.